Two Exeter School junior pupils in uniform laughing together with their arms around each other outside the school building.

Junior Reflections Week 5 October 2025

Dear parents,

We have reached the penultimate week before we break up for half term, and it really feels that autumn has arrived. I would like to thank you for ensuring that items of clothing are named; we are currently seeing a rather large amount of lost property and when items are named, they have a higher chance of being reunited with their owners.

Assemblies

I had the delight of spending the morning over at pre-prep on Tuesday, where I led an assembly about harvest festival and I was joined by my rather naughty friend Jim (aka puppet). A lot of hilarity followed where Jim taught the pupils how to behave and the importance of consent. It is such a tonic to visit all the little people; I could write a book with some of the things that they come up with, and it certainly brightens my day. Our assemblies this week in the junior school focused on age-appropriate online usage for the lower school, and Rules of Law for the upper school. Assemblies are integral to our school day; an opportunity for pupil engagement, messages to be delivered and if pre-prep was anything to go by, a lot of laughter.

This week’s house lunches and assemblies were a great success, offering a fantastic opportunity for the children to get to know each other a little better across year groups. During the assemblies, each house began sharing ideas for creative designs for their unique house shields. This is an exciting time as the houses have the opportunity to decide what symbol they would like to represent them. These will eventually be printed and displayed in the junior school. If your child is continuing to work on their design at home, all instructions are available on Teams. We are looking forward to seeing what the pupils come up with.

Scholarships

A quick reminder that scholarship applications are now open for pupils currently in Upper Two (Year 6), Fourth Form (Year 8) and Upper Fifth (Year 11), with deadlines approaching soon. Please see the school website where you can watch our video presentation or contact admissions@exeterschool.org.uk for further details.

Coming up

The final week before half term is nearly upon us and in true Exeter Junior School style, we don’t slow down, with a taster day for pre-prep, an ‘experience afternoon’ in the senior school for the Upper Two and their parents, comets club visiting the Van Gogh exhibition (I sensibly volunteered to drive the minibus for this one) and some IAPS girls hockey to name but a few.

Have a restful weekend and I look forward to seeing you next week.

Mrs Saskia van Schalkwyk

Playground person of the week

George H U2T

Junior School News

Junior Sport News

Do you have a story or pupil achievement to share with our community?

If you have a couple of lines of information and a photograph that you and your child are happy to be shared we will try to post these at relevant times through the year.
Email our communications team
We're delighted to share that 19 pupils from Exeter School, who are part of Aquila Youth Theatre, led by our LAMDA teacher Matthew Edwards, are heading to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to perform Night of the Fox, a brand new play for young people. 🎭

This marks Aquila's tenth production at the Fringe, and they will be performing at @thespaceuk @ Niddry Street from 10–15 August at 2:05pm.

Best of luck to the entire cast and crew, we can't wait to see what you achieve! 🌟

See  Linktree in our bio to buy tickets. 

#ExeterSchool #IndependentSchoolsUK #Drama #AquilaYouthTheatre #Performance #AspireAndFlourish #CoeducationToThrive #LAMDA #PerformingArts #SeniorSchool #SixthFormLife #SchoolDrama

...

57 0
Happy International Joke Day from everyone at Exeter School🎉

To celebrate, we've put together a short clip of pupils and staff sharing a joke or two. We hope they bring a smile to your face!

What's your favourite joke? Share it with us in the comments below!

#ExeterSchool #JuniorSchool #SeniorSchool #Funny #LOL #Laughing #IndependentSchool #InternationalJokeDay #Joke #FunnyMoments

...

166 0
Introducing the second Team! A huge congratulations to Team Tri-Hards Rafe, Izzy, Bella and Will. R in Upper One this weekend for completing the Knight Frank @schoolstriathlon  at @kingstaunton. 

As first time participants they did an amazing job at completing the course and raising over £2200 for @nspcc_official! 

What a fantastic achievement and an inspiration to everyone at the school. We are so proud of you all! 👏🎉

#ExeterSchool #IndependentSchool #Triathlon #Teamwork #Charity #AspireAndFlourish #InspireAndChallenge #RaisingMoney #UpperOne 
@knightfrank @neilsonholidays

...

13 2

15A vs Ivybridge - 9 October 2025

Hockey 1st XI vs Blundell's - 9 Oct 2025

Rugby vs Sherborne and TBGS - 8 October 2025

Scholars' Concert and Cream Tea 2025

Exonian Quiz - 3 Oct 2025

Lower Two residential 2025

U6 Biology trip to Nettlecombe 2025